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V2 Story I – Part 06

After borrowing a car and leaving the Minase household, I learned a few things. The manor was located in Kyoto, where the Minase clan owned a large piece of land. The mountain owned by the Minase clan and the surrounding area were private property, completely off-limits to the public. We got off the steep mountain road and merged onto a public road, flying at top speed. We drove for a couple of hours. We were lucky to find a hardware store. Otherwise, we might not have made it back to the manor by nightfall.

I laid down the last of the cardboard boxes. Curious eyes gathered around, squirming about when they couldn’t find a gap through the packing tapes. I stretched out my hips, and there was a loud crack. I slouched forward from the sharp pain, moaning.

“Are you all right, Odagiri-san? Back pain at your age is tragic. Or perhaps comical.”

“Shut up,” I snapped.

I hated how I couldn’t deny it. Yusuke, on the other hand, looked fine. We went back and forth three times, but I was the only one suffering. I turned around grudgingly to find Mayuzumi watching us work. Our gazes met, and she smiled.

Her pitiful eyes pissed me off.

“We’re done, Mayu-san,” I said. “What are you using these things for?”

“Good work, both of you. Well then, shall we ask them to serve dinner? Also, they’re more than just things, Odagiri-kun. One per family. It’s a necessity these days.”

So why do we have so many?

I had trouble breathing, so I kept my mouth shut.

Mayuzumi called the boy waiting in the hallway and asked for dinner. They even prepared food for Mayuzumi as well, either out of courtesy or mockery. As expected, she gave it to Yusuke without touching it. Instead, she had chocolate bonbon. Yusuke took all the meat and left the rest for me.

“You should eat something other than meat,” I said, scooping the tofu covered with red bean paste. “Don’t pass it all to me.”

“I’m from the fast food generation. Be reasonable.”

“I’ve never heard of such a generation before,” Mayuzumi said. “Sounds like a new generation.”

The night wore on as we engaged in idle chatter. Yusuke shooed away the eyes swarming the boxes with his baseball bat, while Mayuzumi lay down, looking bored. My stomach was full. The room was cozy once you got used to it.

I had a feeling that nothing would happen.

There was no sign of anything dire happening.

“I think that inattention is a problem of yours, Odagiri-kun,” Mayuzumi said. “You judge what’s before you with your own eyes. If things seem lax, it’s a sign that your brain is lax.” She grinned and casually pulled on a box of chocolates.

I rubbed my lower back and let out a sigh. “So you say, but what if nothing actually happens?”

“I suppose being relieved from what you see rather than being frightened about nothing is a valid approach. Or perhaps the correct way is to doubt everything you see.”

Mayuzumi stuck out her finger and traced it from one corner of the white room to another.

“‘I think, therefore I am’. Even if everything in this world is not real, you yourself will always be real because you think. Actually, it has a much deeper meaning than that. Now allow me to offer a more perverted interpretation. Reality can only be shaped by thought—your peace is yours to decide. Could you pass me my water bottle? There’s hot chocolate in it.”

“Here you go. And might I remind you again that you’ll one day die of diabetes.”

And here I thought she was going to say something smart and complicated. It felt like she was teasing me. I handed her the water bottle, and she took a sip. Silence descended.

The only sound was Yusuke swinging his bat. Whoosh!

“Sorry to bother you, Odagiri-kun,” Mayuzumi said.

“What is it, Mayu-san?”

I turned around. I thought she wanted chocolate, so I handed a new box to her, but she stood up and opened her red parasol. A red shadow stained the wall. The next moment, countless eyes sprang up not only on the ceiling, but all over the walls. Like a black cloud, the swarm drifted away from the room and disappeared into the corridor. Yusuke raised his head like a beast sensing danger. Mayuzumi smiled as she set the parasol over her shoulder.

My belly stirred. There was a slight pain, and I felt the blood in my body drop.

Mayuzumi’s smile was the same as before.

But why did it seem so ominous?

In a voice that I could only describe as enraptured, she whispered, “He’s here.”

---

Driven by a feeling of foreboding that made all the hair on my body stand on end, I put my hand on the sliding door and opened it. The white corridor was lined with ghostly figures. The Minase clan members looked like ink dropped on calligraphy paper. They were staring down the corridor, holding their breath. All of them had a brush in their hands, stopping just short of touching the wall.

Mayuzumi, standing beside me, smiled like an audience waiting for the curtains to rise.

Her face was full of anticipation.

My stomach pulsed. She was kicking me furiously from inside, seemingly agitated. Since the day I acknowledged her as my child, she had never reacted like this. The pain was so intense that I hunched over, clutching my stomach.

Calm down. What’s the matter with you?

I heard a child’s laughter, and my vision switched.

You want me to take a look?

My vision moved forward. The object of the child’s interest seemed to be up ahead. I slipped past the Minase folks and arrived at the entryway. Like eyeballs floating in the air, I studied the situation with my vision alone.

Someone was standing in the square darkness. Their feet were wet and reddish-black. Where were the members of the clan who were supposed to be here? My gaze fell on the twitching left arm discarded in the corner. Gruesome marks were left on the severed section, as though it had been bitten off. As I swallowed, the person standing there moved.

It was a man of medium height and medium build, wrapped in a monk’s working clothes. His body was oddly devoid of presence.

Slowly, he looked up.

There was no face.

A crude Noh mask, devoid of any expression, covered the man’s visage.

The man slowly started walking. His thin soles touched the white corridor. He raised his hands and pointed his unusually long arms toward the wall. At both ends he held brushes, serving like extensions of his arms. The tips of the brush touched the wall, and ink trickled down like a trail of blood. My eyes opened wide.

Oh, shit.

Overwhelming panic gripped my entire body. The man’s arms moved with blinding speed, and two Tigers appeared on the walls. Black and white swirled at a furious speed like a small typhoon gathering. Gradually, it took shape. The tigers that emerged were like ink drawings often seen on hanging scrolls. But something was fundamentally different. They were completely distinct from the Frogs and Eyes. Those looked unnatural, while these seemed extremely real.

They had pulsating muscles under their fur and fangs.

The tigers growled. The man nodded wordlessly.

Like loyal hounds, the tigers crouched down.

“Ruuuuun!” I screamed.

My vision returned at rapid speed. I couldn’t see the tigers yet, but I could feel something approaching. Mayuzumi remained calm and graceful as she cast me a sidelong glance. She stood motionless with her parasol on her shoulder. The Minase folks seemed to have guessed what was going on. One after another, they pressed their brushes on the wall and on the floor and began drawing characters. Some looked graceful, some crude.

Monkey, Raven, Leopard.

I remembered what Mayuzumi said about their ability. It seemed that what they could materialize was determined by their own skill. Even if they drew the same letters, the resulting picture would naturally be different. When I saw the words wriggling, hopelessness came crashing on me.

The quality was like heaven and earth. What they produced couldn’t possibly stand a chance.

They drew animals, but that man drew beasts.

More than ten ravens streaked past, flapping their wings in unison. They didn’t jump out of the wall, perhaps to avoid disturbing their masters in the corridor, but instead glided at a furious speed along the surface of the wall. Only black feathers popped out from the wall and scattered before my eyes. The other animals sprinted underneath. Running along the walls on either side, the tigers appeared from up ahead. The eyes of the mighty beasts burned fiercely.

Drawings clashed within the walls. Ravens swarmed to peck at the tiger’s eyes with their sharp beaks. Shrill cries cut through the air. Leopards and monkeys buried their fangs at the tigers’ legs. Black beasts obscured the tigers for a moment. The next instant, black ink splattered. The tiger on the right wall reared its head and crushed the ravens and the monkey’s head with its jaw. The tiger on the left wall gnawed the leopard in the throat and shook its head. Bodies sprang from the walls, fell to the floor, and bounced. The leopard, its throat bitten off, turned into a convulsing pool of ink.